Presidency makes case for power rotation, insists south needs to complete 8 years

The Presidency has charged the North to honour the current eight-year tenure of the South, in the interest of “reciprocity and national stability.”

Personal Assistant to the President on Radio and Broadcast (Office of the Vice President), Hajiya Rahma Abdulmajid, stated this in Kano on Sunday during the Grand Inauguration & Strategic Media Awards Ceremony of Matan Arewa 4 Tinubu Again (MATA).

She said Nigeria’s national stability hangs by a “slender thread,” demanding that the North honour the unwritten power rotation pact and allow the South to complete its eight-year tenure, warning that breaking this trust could jeopardise the country’s unity.

According to her, Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement is not a sectional concession but a reciprocal compact that has stabilised the Fourth Republic.

Making a veiled reference to former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, who she recalled attended and participated in the famous Kaduna meeting where the power rotation agreement was reached, Abdulmajid argued that the North cannot sacrifice the stability of Nigeria for the ambition of one man.

Tracing the origin to Kaduna, she noted that when military rule ended, patriots negotiated a framework for unity, maintaining, just as he said, “And present in that room was Atiku Abubakar himself, as later confirmed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume.

Insisting on the power rotation arrangement, the presidency said, “In 1999, when the guns of military rule finally fell silent, this nation did not just switch governments—we made a sacred promise. Our founding patriots gathered in Kaduna with one urgent, defining question echo-chambered in their minds: How do we keep Nigeria one?

“And from that sacred deliberation came a compact: not a sectional concession, but a reciprocal agreement. This gentleman’s agreement decreed that power must rotate between North and South every eight years—an arrangement to guarantee fairness, to ensure stability, and to guarantee that no Nigerian ever feels like a stranger in his own country.”

On how the arrangement worked, Abdulmajid said it survived because it was honoured.

“This is not fiction. This is our history. And how did it work? It worked because we honoured it. In 1999, we gave it to the South—Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, eight years, from 1999 to 2007. Then we gave it to the North: Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007. But death, a painful death, cut his tenure short in 2010.

“His vice, Goodluck Jonathan from the South, took over. The North felt cheated. The North said our turn was not complete, and that agitation was legitimate. What happened? In 2015, power returned to the North. The late former President Muhammadu Buhari, eight full years, 2015 to 2023! The sequence was restored! The principle survived,” she stated.

The presidency contended that the agreement is a two-way street and the North has already taken its full benefit.

“My people, the agreement is reciprocal; it is a two-way street. The North has already taken its full benefit after eight solid years under Buhari. You cannot eat your cake and still demand another man’s cake,” Abdulmajid said

The presidential aide stressed that stability requires reciprocity, recalling that the current President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Southerner, worked tirelessly for the late General Muhammadu Buhari to emerge victorious when the North demanded power must return after Jonathan’s tenure.

“That same logic applies today. You cannot abandon a principle when it becomes inconvenient. If you do, you tell the world that the agreement was never a principle at all—merely a temporary tactic. And if we destroy trust today, what will we use to negotiate tomorrow? Let us be honest. Much of this noise against the South completing its term is not a matter of principle. It is personal ambition,” she queried.

Abdulmajid said, “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar tells us zoning is “self-defeating.” But he participated in and benefited from zoned arrangements in 2015 and 2019 when they favored his ambition! When rotation opened the door for him, it was acceptable. When it stands in his way, it becomes “intellectually dishonest.”

“Shall we sacrifice Nigeria’s stability for one man’s ambition? The North’s genuine interest is not served by that; the North’s interest is stable inclusion. The guarantee that power will return to you only lives if we honour the compact today.”

On his part, Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, corroborated Abdulmajid’s position, saying the unity of Nigeria can only be guaranteed by fair play and inclusivity.

The governor who was represented by his Director-General of Media and Publicity, Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, argued that reversing the existing rotational arrangement will paint the North in ignoble light, even as he urged the region to maintain the status quo by re-electing President Tinubu for a second term.

In his remarks, former Governor of Jigawa State and immediate past Minister of Defence, Mohammad Abubakar Badaru, said the Renewed Hope Administration of President Tinubu has benefited the North more than any other part of Nigeria.

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